Gender feminism sends me to south america

i've ran directly over several that didn't have covers....have seen a bunch that were missing and other large holes in the road that would be ugly to ride into....Peru has been the worse for that by far....

gravity, overloaded KLRs and sloppy mud don't mix well.....

Straight ahead of me between the jeepney and the scooter is a front tire size hole in the road!!!

KLR's do make good adventure bikes...i've hopped over curbs, etc...and ridden up the steps into several hostels and hotels...a good adventure bike should be able to ride over these steps easily.,...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yocolE13mHE

The weapon of choice for the Peruvian cab driver is the Daewoo Tico, a small metal box painted bright yellow. I don’t know whether they come ready supplied with dents from the manufacturer but I didn’t see a single one that did not have all its panels knocked out of shape by a driving style that does not recognise lanes, lights, junctions or rights of way. As a bike rider you feel especially vulnerable. It’s a relief to make it to any hotel in one piece.

a quote from http://kwaktour.wordpress.com/ ....so true

Man, that KLR is tough, and glad to see that ActionPAcker is still on sort of tight. I did notice a couple of more cable ties in the pics.

I met a german couple on a fully farkled KTM 990 today, the made a comment about the action packer, and then would barely talk to me. Hey....I was lost in Peruvian Andes for over two days, and I wasn't too hungry because I have plenty of food and water in the action packer....

...all that storage for only $29.99!! ...and yes, it is mostly held on by the biggest zip ties that home depot sells!!

Maybe slap a Touratech sticker on it and they'll think it's the latest luggage system from Germany.

filling up at the back road gas station......almost ran out in the middle of nowhere again!!!

At the pass heading toward Tacna, Peru....just after this I got into my favorite weather phenomenom....heavy fog and rain at the same time....really hard to see road, and makes for very slow going.
Am smiling at this pass after making it through the hardest policia stop yet. At this one, they told me to bring my papers into the police station. They wrote down my info, and then started asking for SOAT or seguro (insurance.) I dont' have any for Peru, but i do have an allstate thing for my insurance in the USA. i didn't want to go out in the cold and get it, so i tried the "no intiendo" routine. They weren't buying it at all. I could understand them saying to each other (there were two of them) that I didn't have seguro. So, they rapid fire a bunch of spanish at me that i don't understand from each of them, one sitting behind the desk and the other standing next to desk almost leaning over me, both of them glaring at me. Then, the guy sitting starts pointing at me and then the desk saying 'dinero, dinero". They wanted me to pay them for not having proof of insurance. So, i glared back at them and said with a snear really loud...."NO"......
and then......
we were best friends. They gave me back my papers. We went out to the moto, where i showed them the tool tube, my heated gear and my gps. And off I went, another policia stop without having to pay a bribe.....

Poked a hole in my radiator when a rock kicked up and somehow poked through the plastic guard. Was able to patch it with jb weld that held for a while, but then started oozing again (probably because i let it set up for a few hours, instead of overnight). Took a day in Tacna, to first spend several hours trying to find more jb weld, and then to clean up radiator and let jb weld set up overnight (like the directions say, imagine that....)

The random photos are of the auto parts "area" in town. Just a bunch of little booths, selling all kinds of different autor parts. No autozone or pep boys here. It took hours of roaming around asking for cold weld (which I think confused the hell out of everyone). Several nice people took me to the local welder. The concept of translating cold weld through my ipod translator turned out to be very frustrating. Eventually, I found some epoxy tubes, took photos of them, and then was able to show people the photos and point to metal things, and that charade got the point across.

count down timers on the traffic lights.....very cool....saw these at several places along the way traveling south.....

Tacna, peru was a surprisingly nice city. Most towns on borders are pretty rough and dirty, with the worst roads. i expected Tacna to be like that. It was the nicest, cleanest city in peru that i went to....

Whew!!! I've been looking forward to Chile...I have high hopes for more gas stations, smoother roads and easier travel than Peru.....

Chile does take the prize for the most disinterested, lazy border officials. My paperwork processing specialist about had a heart attack when i didnt come right to his window when the hidden random red light started blinking. Instead of coming to get me, he just shook his head, bounced up and down in his chair, and kept pushing button to activate the random, hidden red light. Once I figured out what was going on, I just stood there for awhile and watched the guy have a spaz attack in his chair.....good times....

so...things in Chile are starting out a little bit hard. It took five different ATMs to finally find one that would give me cash with my debit card. Took awhile to find and go through that many ATMs. Was getting a little worried that I would be staying until monday to get gas money (it was saturday.) Found one at this gas station that would give me money, which was kinda odd since it was from the same company as the others.

wow...it's along ways between gas stops in Chile. This stretch was 180 miles. Of course, I ran out of gas. I had to tap into the 'second' reserve of gas that sits on the right sid of the tank to make it.